


December 1 - 24 dancing dwarves

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Multi-Age, Other - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2005-12-02
Packaged: 2018-03-22 21:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3744464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today's writing "mathom" is:</p><p>twenty-four dancing dwarves</p><p>***</p><p>Write whatever you feel like – a drabble, a poem or a short story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Devious Dwarves - by Gwynnyd

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

"Dwarves have a sure cure for sadness."  
  
Legolas turned to his friend.  "I never heard that before."  
  
Gimli detected a gleam of interest behind the elf's previously remote eyes.  "It's not something we tell everyone, now is it?  But seeing you have a proper respect for rock, well, I could be enticed to share it. You must keep it secret."  
  
Legolas openly registered curiosity.  "I respect..."  
  
"Good," Gimli overrode him. Taking Legolas's hand he led him through a breathless series of steps and turns. They stumbled to a laughing stop.  
  
"Of course, it's better with a band and twenty-four dancers."  
  



	2. Dec 1: twenty-four dancing dwarves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's writing "mathom" is:

Gloín sat back with an easy laugh. He had left a group of young dwarves, decorating the Grand Hall in preparation for the Mid-Winter celebration, in the hands of his son Gimli. Small, colored cut gems were attached discretely to the mantle and sides of the large hearth, ready to sparkle as if on fire themselves when a fire was lit. Gilded adornments shone from the walls. The table glowed with sculptures created for this occasion.  
  
Not much later, he returned to find instead twenty-four dwarves dancing, as the rest watched gleefully. Well, was this not a time to be grateful for one's gifts? Gloín had an admirable son, who was at this moment attempting to demonstrate skill in an elaborate dance. Ah, well, he was better at leading a group into battle than in following a number of elaborate steps to music. Gloín would be grateful for that.


	3. Reeling - RiverOtter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's writing "mathom" is:

Reeling  
  
A bow, a curtsey  
A fiddler and a caller  
Twenty-four dwarves dance


	4. When in Aglarond -by Lady Masterblott

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's writing "mathom" is:

When in Aglarond…  
  
"I'd never thought it'd be like that!," Pippin whispered into Merry's ear.

"Ssssh!" his cousin admonished him, listening courteously to the apparently endless pre-dinner-speech.

In one thing Pippin was right, he thought. Their visit of their old friend Gimli's home in Aglarond had been surprising indeed. And this included the so far unknown habit of dwarves to lose more time on words than on eating where a formal dinner was concerned.

But the hobbits' bafflement reached a so far unknown extent when after dinner, 24 dwarves performed a traditional booted tap-dance from Erebor on the banquet table, waving multi-coloured hoods.  
  



	5. Celebration by Aranel Took

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's writing "mathom" is:

It was a very rare event that brought about this most joyous of celebrations among the Dwarves, an event even more precious than the discovery of a new vein of ore or a perfect jewel. Within the hall a great feast would be held: mounds of food, casks of ales, rare liquors. 

But while the dwarf-men feasted and sang, a different celebration was held by the dwarf-women. In a quiet chamber, watched by their sisters, twenty-four women would dance a dance of thanks for this blessed event that brought a new face to their ranks: the birth of a girl-child.


	6. 24 Dancing Dwarves in Doriath - by Dean Maia of Este

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's writing "mathom" is:

24 Dancing Dwarves in Doriath  
  
Luthien of Doriath directed the group toward the sound. She and her most courageous maidens – or it could be most nosey – followed it from the chamber where they first heard it. As they rounded a turn, one of the maidens reached and held her arm.

"My Lady …"

"Yes [wind-daughter] we approach the Dwarf-Guest-Hall. We still must look for the source of the rock fall."

"But listen to the volume! How many rocks fall? Do they fill the Hall?' Luthien walked on "We must look. I would know if there is threat to [the cave]."

The nosey small group – or were they courageous? – entered what we would be tempted to call the back door to the Dwarf-Guest-Hall and stopped, stared in amazement.  
  
Luthien accompanied King Thingol and Melian the Maia on formal visits to the Dwarves but those visits were to the front of the Hall. Since she did not wish to be impolite, she had not looked at the rest of the Hall. This time she was in the back of a cave that was home to a Race that loved caves, and it was wonderful. Lights galore turned ordinary rock to glittering jewel. Roasting meat and well-brewed malt turned close-musty air to the smell of greeting. The sound was no rock fall, but Dwarf pounding large rock with smaller and anvil with iron to make the music of the cave and forge.  
  
Then such new music began to entwine with flute and clarinet, fiddle and harp, viol and drum, Twenty-four stepped forth into the light and stood in the center of the hall, unmoving. As if at a signal from the music, they began to dance. Luthien made flowers sprout as she twirled and skipped over the meadows above [the cave] with her dance .She could see how this Dwarven dance could create the jewels that were the flowers of inside the earth. They danced as they worked, in one place, pounding away. Yet, as the skill with which the hammer swung shaped the mass of metal, the skipping rhythm and harmonic time of the Dwarf-boot dance combined with the music of rock and iron began to make the cave walls tremble as if with the breaking forth of light. The sound and the dance seemed, not to rise to a crescendo, but to deepen to the roots of the mountain, the power of the dance began to gather, and again as on a signal, of a sudden, all stopped.  
  
The Elves stood as they absorbed the effect of the dance. Then Luthien sprang forth, curtseyed to the dancers, and bounded away followed by her maidens.  
  
The dancers bowed in return.


	7. Bree-land News - Special Edition - by Agape4Gondor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today's writing "mathom" is:

## Bree-land News - Special Edition

The floor of the local inn, The Prancing Pony, collapsed last night due to 'extreme structural pressure' according to Bree Building Inspector, Cob Brownlock, brother to Nob, Ostler of the establishment owned by Barliman Butterbur.   
  
When asked what precipitated the collapse, Cob said, "'Twere them twenty-four dancing dwarves! Ya can't have twenty-four of 'em all dancing at the same time, in the same space. Some of 'em were climbing on top of each other. Putting stress on the building."   
  
Barliman Butterbur himself was found under the rubble, having gone to the wine cellar for a patron.


End file.
